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Bil dives into the 4 Ps of leadership.
Take your leadership to the next level with Bill Search. Looking at real world problems and offering practical solutions, Bill brings a biblical approach to leadership for a new generation.
Leadership Journey is a Lumivoz podcast.
00;00;00;07 - 00;00;27;17
Jason
Hey, group talk listeners. Jason here group, our producer. Thank you so much for tuning in this month for Leadership Journey. We want to take you back July 2020 for one of those episodes called the four PS of leadership. So whether you're new to group talk or you've been listening for years, this episode will be sure to help you along in your leadership journey to sit back and enjoy Welcome to Group Talk for Show's one podcast from the Small Group Network, focusing on topics relevant to small group ministries.
00;00;27;27 - 00;01;02;04
Bill Search
Whether you're in a church of 100 or 10,000, whether you're a volunteer or staff. We want to support, encourage and equip you to lead well. So relax, listen, enjoy leadership journey with Bill Search. This is Bill Search, and I like to welcome you to the Leadership Journey. This is a brand new podcast with a small group network, and I want to take a moment to thank my friend Steve Clayton, Carolyn Duquette, Nick Lenzi, Derek Olson, all part of the Small Group Network for the invitation to be part of this great team.
00;01;02;28 - 00;01;32;23
Bill Search
We're here to serve you, and it is a privilege to do so. And they've invited me to talk about leadership one of my favorite topics and as it pertains to leadership within the realm of small groups and church work. Truly my favorite context of leadership in all conversations about leadership. And I want to start out with a question I want you to think about this one who had a profound impact on you personally?
00;01;33;24 - 00;01;59;20
Unknown
Who is that person? Can you picture them? Who invested in you in such a way that you are who you are because of them? Can you see them? I bet as you think about that person, there's a smile on your face. Am I right? Now, let me ask you another question. Who is a famous person you admire? You've never met them.
00;01;59;21 - 00;02;31;03
Bill Search
Movie star, theater, music, somebody in the world of politics or power, somebody very famous then you really admire them. My guess is you can picture them, too, but I bet you there's not much emotion about that person, at least compared to the first person you pictured. The first person there was warmth and there was memories and there was strong feeling.
00;02;31;03 - 00;02;59;01
Bill Search
But when it comes to celebrity, well, you like them. But you might be excited to meet him. But you're not passionate in the same way. Why? Why? Well, because the first person knew you and you know they cared about you. You think about them the way they think about you. With love and affection, there's warmth there. If they're no longer part of your life, maybe they passed away or moved away.
00;02;59;19 - 00;03;18;26
Bill Search
You miss them. There's a little part of you that aches, and that's all because there was a closeness there. There was a relationship there. Now, this new podcast is all about the stuff leaders care about. And sometimes we're going to talk about the leaders we lead, and sometimes we're going to talk about the leaders we're called to be.
00;03;19;11 - 00;03;41;09
Bill Search
And the focus will sometimes be inward and sometimes outward. And most of the time, both a mixture. And there is one thing I'm convinced of and it's why I've called this podcast The Leadership Journey. I'm convinced that leadership is just that. It's a journey. Nobody was born a great leader They become great leaders. In fact, sometimes great leaders become lousy leaders.
00;03;42;02 - 00;04;10;28
Bill Search
It's that kind of journey. Leadership is about discovery, and it's about learning, and it's about movement. It's a journey. It's a way of life. It's not a destination. We often say it. There's joy in the journey, and it truly is a joy in the leadership journey. And so what I want to talk about in this very first podcast is what I would call the four pillars of leadership development for peace.
00;04;10;28 - 00;04;41;13
Bill Search
Because each of the words of the four pillars. What starts with the letter P personal, practical, principled, persistent. Now, if you didn't write that down, don't worry, because we're going to come back to them. Let me unpack them one at a time. Let me start with personal. The leadership development process is personal. You know, no one should ever feel like they're part of a system or serial number, that they exist only in a database that the recipient of a newsletter.
00;04;42;09 - 00;05;03;26
Bill Search
There's nothing quite as dishonoring as feeling like you aren't human, that you're not important enough to be known when you get a form letter. How do you feel? Listen to these words. Convicting words from the prophet Ezekiel. This isn't the 34th chapter. And if you've never read this chapter before. Let me encourage you to take a moment. Take it.
00;05;03;26 - 00;05;26;19
Bill Search
Take in fact, take a part of a day. Take a journal. And just the 34th chapter of Ezekiel. It's haunting and convicting. Here you go. Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves. Should not shepherds take care of the flock you eat? Kurds clothe yourselves with the wool, and you slaughter the choice of animals.
00;05;26;25 - 00;05;45;06
Bill Search
But you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or wound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or search for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd. And when they were scattered, they became food for all the while the animals.
00;05;45;14 - 00;06;06;08
Bill Search
My sheep wandered all over the mountains and on every high hill they were scattered over the whole earth and no one searched or look for them. You know, I love the sections of the Bible that tell us what to do, but I also love the sections of the Bible that tell us what not to do. And this is one of those what not to do.
00;06;06;20 - 00;06;33;08
Bill Search
Type of passages. It describes the bad leaders of the nation of Israel and how does how does Ezekiel describe the bad leaders? Well, the bad leaders are selfish and self-focused. They take care of their own needs. First they have no idea or concern about the condition of the flock. They have no idea where the flock even is. They don't would care if the flocks wandered away or is in danger.
00;06;33;08 - 00;07;02;11
Bill Search
Or they don't make any personal effort to explore the need to pursue the lost. And what is God say to that kind of shepherd? Woe to you that's the word. Woe to you. That's scary. So as leaders, we ought to personally invest in the people we are charged to lead. We are to know their stories their cares, their concerns, know what motivates and what doesn't, what frightens them, and what makes their heart race.
00;07;02;24 - 00;07;25;10
Bill Search
We had to know the birthdays, their anniversaries, their their happy days and their unhappy days. So the question here, this is really the question and this will help me understand if I have a personal relationship with my people. Do I love my people? I mean, do I love them? Do they know that I love them? That's really the personal question there.
00;07;26;00 - 00;07;48;23
Bill Search
It's a it's a question about love. But there's also the second part, and this is that the leadership journey is practical. Let's be honest. Some of us are philosophical or poetic, and we know who we are. We get excited about the ethereal and we use words like spiritual formation, and we get excited about terms like solitude and the inner life and fasting.
00;07;48;23 - 00;08;05;17
Bill Search
And there's nothing wrong with that stuff. That's good stuff. There's a place for that. But the people were called to lead. They need the practical stuff of life. You look at Luke Ten when Jesus sends out the 72, this is his core band of leaders. These are the people he has poured himself into. And now he instructs them.
00;08;05;29 - 00;08;27;10
Bill Search
He instructs them on what to do and where to go and what to take and how to respond when they're accepted and how to respond when they're rejected, practical kind of stuff. He gives them both solid theology and simple advice. And you fast forward into the Gospels on the very night in which Jesus was betrayed at what we have now come to know is the Lord's Supper.
00;08;27;12 - 00;08;49;25
Bill Search
He was celebrating the Passover and he repurposes the Passover as a meal to help his followers celebrate and remember what he has done for them and for us in 2000 years later, we take a little bread and we take a cup and we remember what the Lord has done. How come? Well, He gave us really practical advice on how to do it.
00;08;50;04 - 00;09;19;00
Bill Search
And we still do it. Now, here's the question. This is the practical question. Can our leaders pass on what we pass on to them? I mean, think about it. What you are doing with your leaders, can they pass that on to somebody else? If you're in struggling, if you're giving some wisdom, if you're imparting something, can they take what they are learning from you and pass it on to somebody else?
00;09;20;18 - 00;09;40;24
Bill Search
If you think, well, I'm not sure. The odds are it's not very practical. But if they can, I think, you know, the answer. A group talk listener. Jason, again, I wanted to remind you that we're only about a month away from our biggest event of the year. Have you gotten your tickets for a lobby gathering? 20, 22 yet join us February 22nd.
00;09;40;29 - 00;09;58;25
Bill Search
24th in sunny San Juan Capistrano, California. It's January. I'm pretty sure almost all of us could use the sun The smoking networking event is sure to help you connect with new and veteran small group of people and give you an opportunity to relax along the way. Since you are a group to listen to, we have a special discount code just for you.
00;09;59;08 - 00;10;19;09
Bill Search
Take advantage of this special by going to small group networking for its large conferences under a lobby gathering. Click Register before selecting your tickets. Be sure to enter promo code up top and enter group talk all one word again. That's group talk all one word for your exclusive $100 off. Hope to see you there. Now back to Leadership Journey.
00;10;19;25 - 00;10;40;04
Bill Search
All right. Let's move on to the third peak. And this is that this is the principled aspect of the leadership journey. Many years ago, when I was a young man, I'd stay up very late watching a Saturday Night Live. I'm not proud of it. Most of it was not worth staying up for. But there was this funny segment entitled Deep Thoughts by Jack Candy.
00;10;40;15 - 00;11;02;17
Bill Search
And it spoofed what today we would call memes, but it was like this serene image in this gentle music. And there's just soothing voice would come over and just say the dumbest stuff. And it was spoofing all of the very profound things that people would set to a nice idyllic image with a beautiful musical backdrop. In fact, today we still do the same stuff.
00;11;02;26 - 00;11;20;19
Bill Search
Few years ago, there was a company called Accessories, and you could buy a poster with an inspirational phrase and image on it. And then there was a spoof company that came out that came out with a series called D Motivators, and they would do the same thing only it would be something jaded and cynical. You probably have seen some variation thereof.
00;11;21;10 - 00;11;39;20
Bill Search
And the point is this is that the world offers plenty of leadership ideas, and it's not all wrong. Some of it's good, some of it's accessory type of stuff that motivates. I love a good leadership book or article just as much as the next person. But Christian leaders, we have a deeper and more profound wealth to draw from.
00;11;40;14 - 00;12;01;03
Bill Search
See, it's our responsibility to nourish our souls in the souls of our leaders with the Word of God, I'm reminded of the words of Paul to his protege, Timothy. He says, All scriptures God Breathe In is useful for teaching and rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good word.
00;12;02;08 - 00;12;21;01
Bill Search
And I wonder if I wonder if Timothy was bathed in a culture much like our own. There were a lot of books about leadership, and there were a lot of books at the time. A lot of wisdom at the time about how how a leader ought to conduct themselves or what it meant to be a strong kind of person.
00;12;21;11 - 00;12;47;27
Bill Search
We still unearth various documents about that sort of stuff. And maybe Timothy was prone to reading some of that stuff. And again, not all that stuff's bad, but maybe the Apostle Paul was saying, Hey, Timothy, remember this? Our book is the book. Our literature is the literature that the man of God, the woman of God, would draw them their wisdom directly from the Word of God.
00;12;48;16 - 00;13;23;02
Bill Search
So here's the question. This is the question about principle, the principled nature of the leadership journey. What's your content? Or if we're keeping the metaphor of journey left? What's your map? What's your compass? What? What was that? What is the source of your content? Is it scripture? It ought to be. And finally, the final piece in this leadership journey is persistent, whether it's self leadership or the leadership of others.
00;13;23;19 - 00;13;48;11
Bill Search
There's really no end. I mean, not till Jesus comes back. And there's some hints in Scripture that even eternity will be its own exciting, blessed journey. See, we're constantly in a state of learning and growing. If you ever notice that usually the reward for doing a good job of growing into a new layer of responsibility is accumulating more responsibility.
00;13;49;07 - 00;14;12;13
Bill Search
If you've ever served in the military, or if you have a job in a company or or even work within a church, you know that hard work. And when you actually show yourself faithful and people respond to your leadership, that means you get more responsibility. It's just the way it is. 50 years ago, there was a book that came out written by Lawrence Peter and Raymond Hall.
00;14;12;13 - 00;14;38;19
Bill Search
It's called The Peter Principle. And what they identified is that the average employee will tend to rise to their level of incompetence. Now, that's a pretty jaded way of looking at it, isn't it? You eventually get to your Peter Principle and you might have a boss like that or have had a boss like that. You might be that person You find yourself in a position where, like, I am not competent to do this job, and that's the truth.
00;14;38;19 - 00;15;07;05
Bill Search
We all will get there. But the truly competent, wise person will grow into the responsibility they have. See, the real problem isn't that we're incompetent. The real problem usually is the leader quits learning, quits growing, quits adapting, quits collaborating, quits turning to the people next to him and says, help me through this. See a great leader. Partners with other people.
00;15;07;25 - 00;15;35;13
Bill Search
They know what they don't know. Look at Moses, Joshua, David, in the Old Testament or Peter or Paul in the New Testament, constantly growing in their silver years. They were not the boys of their youth. Thank God they grew. That's a good thing. As we age, we ought not become more rigid, more difficult more cranky. No, no. As we grow, we should.
00;15;35;19 - 00;16;04;25
Bill Search
We should exude more confidence in the Lord. Not confidence in ourselves. In fact, as we grow our confidence in ourselves, that ought to actually evaporate. As I get older, I feel like I know less all the time. How come? Well, because as I get older, I know that. I know less all the time. Maybe I just described you, too, but unfortunately, there's this other pattern which people get older and they become more, quote, set in their ways.
00;16;05;09 - 00;16;29;08
Bill Search
They become more rigid. Now, certainly there are convictions that we ought to rigidly grab hold of, but those are few and far between and ought to be theologically rooted. But for the rest of the stuff of life, there ought to be this constant fertility of the mind that's willing to grow into adapt. And that's part of what it means to be persistent.
00;16;29;21 - 00;16;52;11
Bill Search
We need to be persistent in ourselves and grow. But there's also a persistence with other people. We've got to keep leading them. We've got to keep after them, keep investing them. It's not one and done. We don't train them in a September training event and turn them loose and and hope for the best. No, we persist along side.
00;16;52;29 - 00;17;10;27
Bill Search
That's true of ourselves when we look in the mirror, and this is true of those we are called to lead. And so the question here, this is the question that you can ask yourself, but this is a fun question to ask other people. Get ready to write this one down. Here's the question What did I learn last week?
00;17;12;07 - 00;17;38;05
Bill Search
Not am I a learning kind of person, am I a growing kind of person? Because everyone's going to answer that one. Yes. No, no, no, no. Ask a better question. What did I learn last week? And this is a fun one to ask other leaders, what are what did you learn last week? And might a maybe a moment there might be a quiet moment where either you don't or the other person, if you ask them a question, they don't have an answer.
00;17;38;14 - 00;18;04;05
Bill Search
But if you if you give them enough time, they'll think of something. See, a persistent leader always learn a new stuff. So there you have it. The four piece of leadership development. Leadership development is personal. It's practical. It's principled. It's persistent. And I'm convinced this journey is best taken together. And I'm excited to be on this journey with you.
00;18;05;04 - 00;18;25;09
Bill Search
What are you learning? What are you struggling with? I would love to hear it. Send me an email group, talk it. Small group network dot com group talk small group, network dot com or write a comment in our small group network Facebook group. When this gets posted. Put a question in there. Tag me in the questions so that I know I'll be keeping an eye out.
00;18;25;29 - 00;18;44;07
Bill Search
Or send me a message via one of the social media platforms. Or through that website that I or the email address I just gave you. I would love to hear from you. What are you learning or what are the questions about leadership that you think should be part of the leadership journey? Because ultimately, this is not my journey.
00;18;45;07 - 00;19;09;00
Bill Search
This is not your journey. This is our journey. Our journey together. So I'm excited. I'm excited to be on this journey with you. Until next time. God bless a small group network family. Jason Banzhaf here, group talk producer and small group network creative arts director. We really hope that you enjoyed the first installment of Leadership Journey with Bill Search.
00;19;09;14 - 00;19;31;04
Bill Search
The past few weeks have been phenomenal, and I can't wait till next week. Now, before we go, let's talk about huddles huddles are like small groups for small group point people. Imagine having a place where you can talk about your ministry, gather ideas and grow together with other people, just like yourself. Make sure you check out small group networks dot com forward slash channels to find one near you.
00;19;31;15 - 00;19;49;00
Bill Search
You definitely will not regret it. And thank you for listening to the group talk. We invite you to subscribe to our podcast through iTunes and get new episodes downloaded automatically. Also, if you enjoy this program, please take a few minutes to give us a positive rating on iTunes so that other small group point people can find us more easily.
00;19;49;01 - 00;20;20;22
Bill Search
We encourage you to visit our website, Small Group Network, CNN.com to access our library of free resources Connect to a huddle with other small group ministry leaders in your area. Read our blog articles or join us on our Facebook group. Don't forget to use the hashtag as gene that when engaging with your social media channels. Thank you for your support A group doc listener Jason here, group doc producer, our group talk podcast is growing in listenership and we have exciting news for you listeners.
00;20;21;16 - 00;20;46;29
Bill Search
Starting April 6th, we are launching the group Talk Network as podcasts. Don't worry, we'll still have your favorite shows, favorite host and favorite topics. They'll just be on their own separate channel and they'll be available wherever you choose to listen to your podcast. And best of all, we will be expanding and offering some very exciting new resources to help equip you in your ministry because a great network is made of great people like you